The music is unlike anything Cloud Nothings has done before, and that's a good thing.

While the new record represents a considerable leap in ambition, it retains the hand-made, intensely personal quality that defined Crutchfield’s earlier work.

Lerner released two solid albums of guitar-and-drum-led rock, but he grows on Dormarion because he is finally willing to knock over the boundaries he built for himself.

Whether he’s softly plucking away or spinning a complicated web of chords, Tyler’s music is transportive in the sense that it can offer an escape from just about anywhere.

With Sister Faith, their fourth album in nine years, Coliseum offers up its most palatable set of tunes yet, a continuation of the dirty-pop paradigms set in place by 2010’s House With A Curse, and the Parasites EP released the following year.

Although most of Careers chugs along with a sandy roadside candor, some tracks, like the churning, heavy Planet Birthday or the clinically pulsing Hong Kong Hotel, play with disparate textures.

In addition to featuring some creative tongue-lashing, You’re Gonna Miss It All expands on the musical ideas and tendencies that made Sports such a hit.

In all, this is a muscular yet not flashy outing from Gang Gang Dance, and its smooth confidence is a welcome respite from its self-indulgent neighbors.

My Night, My Time is a pop album that’s offbeat in its self-awareness and on point with the steep hooks and expansive beats that make pop music pop.

It's the motion of the album that compels you through it, leaving you with a need for some resolution in what the next track will bring.

This is very much her record-it's a fractured gorgeousness, with Garbus embracing her oddness in a gesture of self-love that results in an alarming, startling, fun and playful record.

Although GB City was powerful in its own way, the self-titled displays an impressive attention to detail that helps bring out some of the sound that was lacking in the group’s early work.

The album is at its best with "A Matter Of Time" and "From Here On Out."

The result is a beautifully poignant and cinematic album, a post-hardcore masterpiece.

The group took more time crafting these songs, and because of that, the album seems almost effortless.

Sonically, it's on par with the rest of his discography: meaty instrumentation, multi-layered vocals, winks and smirks.

In between the soul-searching, Fleet Foxes cranks out some pretty great singalong songs. And that's what it's all about, isn't it?

For Mogwai, it works; the sound's grandiloquent and goddamnit, loud.

This certainly isn't music to hit the beach by, and it's also not as concerned with maximizing texture as chillwave is, creating some of its most intriguing moments with negative space.

While Mean Love is his most experimental album to date, it’s also his most precise.

As a whole, the album is charming, but deeply moving. The instrumentation is often simple, as are the lyrics, and the result is a rewarding, slow-building work of serious depth, and a long overdue solo debut for one of the genre’s finest songwriters.

Mind Bokeh signifies a union between sonic exploration-typically condemned to musical isolation by being defined as experimental -- and the consonances of modern pop music that are readily accepted by mass listeners.

With all its messy emotions, unfiltered memories and contradicting revelations, Anxiety shows that it’s not only possible to write a self-conscious record without the protective shield of anonymity, it can be just as thrilling.

Rilo Kiley always had the ability to acknowledge the bad without letting it suck you down. That got lost on the weirdly glossy, distant and jaded Blacklight, but RKives restores the balance.

Though the Stepkids themselves seem undecided on their signature sound, they boast a refreshing reluctance to limit possibility that ultimately translates into a truly original style of their own.

This music has deep roots, but Nabay's version of bubu is more contemporary and club oriented than folksy.

Whether you are listening to the album for its monetary-political messages or just hoping to enjoy the band's indie-punk sound, Local Business will sate both sides.

Strange Weekend takes on the lofty task of musical multitasking and succeeds.